Wind Cave National Park

Lore & Background

The Lakota, Cheyenne, and other Native American tribes were aware of the cave's existence, and the Lakota considered it sacred as the site where they first emerged from the underworld. Originally called Washun Niya, the cave played an important role in Lakota traditions and culture. The oral history tells of Tokahe, the first human to emerge from the cave. The area also served as a source of resources and hunting grounds for native peoples. McDonald to oversee a mining claim, but no valuable minerals were found. Jan and Herb Conn played an important role in exploration during the 1960s.

Reader's Guide

Wind Cave National Park holds significance as the sixth national park in the U.S. and the first cave anywhere in the world to be designated a national park. Its cave system is recognized as the densest in the world, with the greatest passage volume per cubic mile, and it contains approximately 95 percent of the world's discovered boxwork formations. The cave is also one of the best known examples of a breathing cave, where air moves in and out to equalize pressure, a phenomenon that gave the cave its name. Above ground, the park protects the largest remaining natural mixed grass prairie in the United States. The park's bison herd is one of only four free-roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America, and it is currently brucellosis-free. The park also hosts endangered species such as the black-footed ferret and whooping crane. The cave's exploration history includes early tours by candlelight and the work of the McDonald family and later explorers like Jan and Herb Conn. The park's visitor center features exhibits on geology, wildlife, and the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Did You Know?

• Wind Cave was the first cave to be designated a national park anywhere in the world.
• Approximately 95 percent of the world's discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave.
• The Wind Cave bison herd is one of only a few free-roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America.

Geological Marvel and Ancient Origins

The Jenolan Caves hold a distinction that few geological formations can claim: they are the oldest known and dated open cave system on Earth, with an age of approximately 340 million years. This remarkable figure was established through potassium-argon dating, a technique that measures the ratio of radioactive potassium to the trapped argon gas it produces as it decays. The clay deposits within the caves yielded this extraordinary age, and the research was spearheaded by a collaboration between CSIRO, the University of Sydney, and the Australian Museum. The cave network itself is vast, stretching over 40 kilometres across multiple levels with more than 300 known entrances, and it traces the path of a hidden underground section of the Jenolan River. Within its passages, visitors can encounter Silurian marine fossils and stunning calcite formations that sometimes gleam in pure white. Despite extensive exploration, the complex remains incomplete, with new passages still being discovered. Situated roughly 175 kilometres west of Sydney in the Central Tablelands, the caves and their 3,083-hectare conservation reserve form a geological treasure of global significance.

Indigenous Heritage and Living Memory

Long before European eyes ever gazed into their depths, the Jenolan area was woven into the spiritual and cultural fabric of the Gundungurra and Wiradjuri peoples, who knew the place by names such as Binomil or Bin-oo-mur. The Tharawal people also held the site in deep regard, referring to it as Binoomea, Bindo, or Binda. A central Dreamtime creation narrative of the Gundungurra tells of a cosmic struggle between two ancestral spirits: Gurangatch, a colossal eel-like being, and Mirrigan, a great native cat or quoll, whose conflict shaped the very landscape. The caves themselves played a sacred role in Gundungurra life; members of the community would penetrate the passages as far as the subterranean waters, carrying the sick to be bathed in this water, which they believed possessed healing power. The very name Jenolan is thought to derive from the Tharawal word Genowlan, meaning a high place shaped like a foot. A far less credible origin traces the name to J E Nolan, a phrase allegedly found smoked by candlelight on a cave ceiling.

European Discovery and the Dawn of Conservation

The precise moment the caves were first seen by Europeans remains shrouded in uncertainty, as no contemporaneous written account survives. Most narratives, penned decades later, credit James Whalan with stumbling upon the system around 1838 or 1841 while tracking a notorious ex-convict and thief named McKeown, who had made off with livestock, tools, clothing, and a flour grinder. James reportedly relayed his find to his brother Charles, who went on to conduct the first paying visitors through the passages in the 1840s. The caves were initially called the Fish River Caves. A landmark shift came in 1866 when the New South Wales Government assumed control, making the site only the second area in the world set aside specifically for conservation. The following year, Jeremiah Wilson was appointed the first official Keeper of the Caves. Wilson proved an avid explorer, discovering the Imperial, Left Imperial (later renamed Chifley), Jersey, and Jubilee Caves. By 1872, growing visitor damage prompted a ban on souvenir-taking and graffiti, and in 1884 the name Jenolan Caves was formally adopted.

Opening the Caves to the World

For early travellers, reaching the caves from Katoomba meant enduring a roundabout 140-kilometre detour via Tarana. In the mid-1880s, local hoteliers lobbied for a direct route, and in April 1884 surveyor William Marshall Cooper was dispatched to survey a horse-and-carriage track. His ten-day trek produced a 42-kilometre route he estimated at twelve hours on foot or five hours by ride, which became popularly known as the Six Foot Track. Parliament approved 2,500 pounds for construction in 1885, with the most arduous work involving a zig-zag cut through solid rock at the Megalong Cleft to tame the gradient to one in 5.5. Governor Lord Carrington made the first recorded passage in September 1887 and, upon arrival, became the first official visitor to the caves. The site's prestige continued to grow: the current Jenolan Caves House was erected in 1898 to replace Wilson's earlier wooden structure, which fire had partially destroyed in 1895. Today, eleven illuminated show caves welcome paying visitors, and the reserve was inscribed in 2000 as the most westerly component of the UNESCO-listed Greater Blue Mountains Area, while also holding a place on the Australian National Heritage List.